GUILTY TN - Matthew Ware, 23, found dead off I-26, Unicoi County, 14 May 2010

http://www.citizen-times.com/article/2010100514065

'' N.C. Authorities identified the body as Matthew Jay Ware, 23. The case is considered a homicide.

Madison County law enforcement spent the afternoon checking trash cans at exits east of the overlook and reviewing video from convenience stores along Interstate 26. They were searching the trash cans for a gun, leaving the implication that the victim, a male, had been shot.''

http://www.operationlookout.org/lookoutmag/Runaway_in_02_Found.htm

How incredibly sad. No known address. No hometown?

It looks like his mom is an avid Mountain Bike rider. Pretty big on that scene.

It makes me wonder that after a 14 year old is out there for several years how is it when he's recovered? It must be a tough situation.

Rest in peace Matthew Jay Ware. Praying you finally have a place you want to stay.

There's no updated news on this poor guy. This bothered me all day today.

"Homeless by choice?" or "Wanderlust?"

It's all so very sad and it seemed he was found after all those years for a reason. Isn't that how life is supposed to work?

((((((sigh))))))

There's a Myspace for a guy by this same name. Almost the exact age and he calls himself "Drifter". If it is him he did have friends and people who cared about him. I didn't want to post it in case I was wrong.

RIP young man.

It seems like they have some reason to believe his murder was not random.
http://www2.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/murder_investigation_in_unicoi_county/46211/

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20100517/NEWS03/100517017/Nashville+man+confesses+to+murder

ERWIN, Tenn. -- A Nashville man has turned himself in to police after a fatal shooting in northeast Tennessee.

The Johnson City Press quoted Unicoi County Sheriff Kent Harris who said 63-year-old John Lee Brooks came to the sheriff's office Sunday morning and confessed to killing a man whose body was found at a scenic overlook near the North Carolina state line. Brooks was charged with first-degree murder.

Harris said the body of Matthew Jay Ware was discovered Friday morning along Interstate 26.

Brooks told investigators he had picked up Ware who was hitchhiking and let him stay overnight at his hotel room because Ware was homeless and had no money.

The sheriff said the argument that led to Ware's shooting likely involved the victim's disdain for the military and the suspect being a Vietnam War veteran.

From September 2012:

http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/Loc...to-lesser-charge-gets-25-years-in-prison.html

John Lee Brooks, the Nashville man charged with first-degree murder in the May 2010 shooting death of a West Virginia man at an overlook in Unicoi County... entered a plea of guilty to the charge of second-degree murder...

Senior Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood sentenced Brooks to serve 25 years in prison and said Brooks must serve 100 percent of the sentence, less any credits he may be eligible for through the Department of Corrections.

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